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THE Last 2009 Top Ten List ever.
Posted by: anthony – Jan 02, 2010
As 2009 comes to a close, it is time to count down the best movies of the year. The following films are my ten favorites from the past year. Since we will have ten Best Pictures nominees to look forward to this year, perhaps we will see some overlap between my list and the Academy’s.
10. Watchmen
Who could have expected that Zack Snyder would follow up the incredibly overrated 300 with another comic book movie that actually lives up to its source material? Yes, comic purists can complain about the changed ending and the removal of the Tales of the Black Freighter story within the story, but it is difficult to deny that the power and depth of the story and characters were successfully transferred to the big screen. Have you ever wondered how the world would react if an actual superhero existed, or how the world would have changed if masked vigilantes fought for America in Vietnam? Watchmen masterfully weaves a murder mystery through decades of American history with a superhero twist.
9. Ink
Ink is an amazing independent film that is immediately comparable to movies like Dark City and The Matrix. It is always encouraging to see new ways to tell a basic story of good versus evil. In this case, opposing forces battle as we sleep to give us good dreams or nightmares every night. Eventually, it all leads to war over one little girl’s soul, and, thanks to a brilliantly constructed non-linear story, a heavy emotional ending. Find and rent this one wherever you can. It is worth the effort.
8. Knowing
Perhaps the most polarizing choice on this list. Knowing seems just as likely to appear on someone else’s Worst Of list. Apparently, Nicholas Cage discovering the secret to predicting disasters in an elementary school time capsule is not everybody’s cup of tea. I, on the other hand, found it to be an incredibly tight paced thriller with some of the most memorable disaster scenes this side of a Roland Emmerich movie. Just ask anyone who has seen this film if they will ever forget the plane crash scene and their reaction should tell you that this is one of the best suspense thrillers of the year.
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Chances are if Wes Anderson makes a movie in a year it will be one of the ten best. It turns out this remains true when the film is animated. Fantastic Mr. Fox has charm to spare as it weaves the tale of a fox striving to make a better life for his family by stealing goods from the most dangerous farmers around. Computer animation may be bright and smooth, but there is an undeniable grounding quality in clay animation that makes even the most absurd images seem real. Do not be fooled into thinking this film is just for kids. There is much more for adults than the animated nature of the film implies.
6. (500) Days of Summer
(500) Days of Summer is the rare romantic comedy that is aimed at men as much, if not more, than it is at women. A lot of this feeling comes from an excellent everyman performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Pay close attention to the expectations versus reality split screen scene. It is a feeling everyone has experienced, but has never been expressed so well in a movie before. If this movie had been made twenty years ago, it would have probably been a John Cusack classic. It is nice to see the passing of the torch.
5. Star Trek
Star Trek should not be dismissed because it was a big budget science fiction film. We should not forget that J.J. Abrams did more than just make an exciting action movie. By making Star Trek accessible to everyone with tight paced action while still remaining loyal to the original shows, Abrams saved a forty year old franchise that was on its last legs. Fans of Star Trek owe J.J. Abrams the future, and people who previously did not like the franchise can finally look forward to innumerable sequels.
4. Up
To put it simply, Pixar makes masterpieces. Up will make you laugh like a child, or gasp in awe at the sense of adventure. Amazingly, it might also get some tears out of you within the first ten minutes. The filmmakers push every button, and they never lose sight of the fact that an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary situations often makes for a truly compelling story. By the end of the film, you will have as strong an attachment to the characters as they develop for each other.
3. Avatar
James Cameron worked off and on for twelve years to deliver a movie he promised would revolutionize special effects. He followed through with that promise to give us Avatar, a movie that is as much a leap forward as The Matrix ten years ago, or Cameron’s own Terminator 2 eight years before that. You have never seen motion capture computer animation look this good before. Nor have you ever experienced such immersive 3D. Rather than pop out, appropriate aspects of the picture sink in turning the movie screen into a seeming window onto lush alien jungles. This film deserves to be a phenomenon.
2. District 9
If we can appreciate Star Trek for revitalizing a classic science fiction franchise, we can also praise District 9 for doing something new within the genre. An entire alien population lands in Johannesburg, South Africa and is pushed into slums and shoehorned into human society. Distrust between the species causes bigotry and oppression, and, at its worst, violence. Apparently, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp gained inspiration from seeing poor treatment of the impoverished while growing up in Johannesburg. It may seem silly to think that a film that features bug-like aliens somehow rings true with social commentary, but that is what Blomkamp manages to achieve.
1. Inglourious Basterds
It seems Quentin Tarantino has decided to stop making small crime dramas and start making epics. He began in 2003 with his martial arts epic, Kill Bill. This year, we saw his war epic, Inglourious Basterds. The film is everything we have come to expect from Tarantino. We get twenty minute bouts of exceptionally written dialogue, and abrupt scenes of brutal violence. We also get one of the most menacing villains ever in Colonel Hans Landa, played brilliantly by Christoph Waltz. Tarantino capitalizes on this feeling in the most unexpected and satisfying way. Not just a great movie, but, in my opinion, the best movie of the year.
I saw a lot of movies this year, but I did not see everything. If your pick for best movie of 2009 does not appear on my list, I may have missed it. Leave a comment and let me know what I should look for to rent over the coming weeks.
By Gareth Mussen
- 1
5 Comment(s)
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These are a couple that came to mind:
-Adventureland
-Up In The Air
-Moon
-Where The Wild Things Are (I remember you reviewing this, but it seems like a prominent pick on several lists I've come across this year)
-The Road
-Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (I dont really think this is a great film by any means, but everyone has to see it. You can only describe it so much to people until they start questioning if you are making this movie up)
-The Last House on The Left (not a bad remake)
-The Hurt Locker
-The Girlfriend Experience
-The Hangover (it was probably the best comedy released this year)
-Funny People (i dug it, but it's kinda hit or miss with most audiences)
-A Serious Man
-The Messenger
-An Education
Good list though. These are all movies that I have either seen your reviews for on the site or movies that I am curious as to what your opinion of them are.
— Posted by: Shannon Cleary on January 2, 2010 - 3:24pm9 from 2009
This is my list of the 9* films that made me think the most in
2009. I missed seeing a few films that I did want to see but did
not get to, chief among these are Precious and Up, I also missed
Transformers 2, Public Enemies, The Box, A Christmas Carol, 2012, a
few others I had planed on seeing and boycotted Terminator
Salvation. This has been a good year of motion pictures sadly most
dealt with the end of the world.
The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow delivers a complete action film
sans sentimentality or fantasy. Real gritty 16 mm location work
leaves no feel of artifice. Solid scenes make up days of survival
during a rotation tense vignettes surrounding high explosives and
the humans on all sides of the blast radius with little moralizing
and no speeches.
Avatar A complete virtual world elegant action sequences, timeless
myth-making, new technology high water marks, and excellent theater
experience. James Cameron does what he wants and does it well.
Weta Digital has advanced what will be possible in the big budget
epic world creation but it will be hard to for everyone else to
reach that level of realism and there will still be a lot of bad
VFX movies. The year started with a completely different but no
less awesome 3d experience with Henry Selick's adaptation of the
Neil Gaiman's book Coraline . The intricate world was quite
different from the far off planet, made up of distracted parents
and eccentric neighbors, a lonely girl fights the flip side of her
reality and it was entrancing.
Nine Sadly this is not the Guido America wants to see. The
Fellini inspired filmmaker at 50 goes on a journey of personal and
artistic rebirth and in the end as he starts to craft something of
worth again. A sharp celebration of movie making and how it was in
the past. Gorgeous women and devastating music numbers this is a
film that will be rediscovered in the home and loved. It will be
rushed out of the theaters never gaining traction, but the Jersey
Shore's Guidos, well I don't know, I haven't seen it.
A Serious Man The Coen brothers make a quantum paradoxical movie
about God with more personal connections to material than ever.
This film shows the lens that they have used in all their other
films and opens up different readings of every movie before. It
also brings up the concept of God and I cant believe I am the guy
to say this but in a world like todays a film like this is one to
be paid attention to as we try to weather our own personal crises.
It is like a story from Rabbi to help you make sense of your own life.
Jennifer's Body A funny film about a girl that eat boys souls or
just eats them that is terrifying. Diablo Codys second feature
script more surreal, funnier and a more satisfyingly feminine
vision with director Karyn Kusama than Juno was. Jason Reitman did
produce the film with Cody perhaps he was aware of that. Finally
some one gave Megan Fox something interesting to do and she looks
great in an Evil Dead shirt too. I enjoyed it more than Drag Me to
Hell which seemed to be a threshold test to see how much abuse can
be thrown at an actress and an audience. Paranormal Activity was
fun to see with a verbal audience and is a light in the dark for
for low budget success with a good idea and a audience willing to
go along for the ride.
District 9 Mixing the mocumentry style with a sci fi action
adventure, a hybrid building on the televisions influence on movie
telling, Wingnut Films made a short film graduation to feature
possible for Neil Blomkamp and he made a badass film. In contrast
with G.I. Joe it showed how a talented actor can take pulpy
material to high drama. Along with Shane Acker's 9 a new
generation of directors emerging from the internet is maturing with
the help of executive producers like Tim Burton and Peter Jackson.
Moon One of many smart sci fi films of 2009 doing what good sci
fi does address some ethical questions about current scientific
discussions. Good promise from Duncan Jones to make philosophic
material that is actor and concept driven with Visual Effects a
part of the story not the point of the story. It was cool to see
such a James Cameron influenced much smaller film in the year of
Avatar.
Julie and Julia There will be a noticeable up tick in blogs about
food since this films release on DVD. When Nora Ephron's film came
out it was welcome counter programing to G.I. Joe and District 9
for adults, it is a good film about the literary achievement of
being published and the support of a loved one in the struggle to
see that vindication happen. It was a nice screening surrounded by
films with massive amounts of firearms.
Inglorious Basterds is to me better as a celebration of German
cinema and study of cinematic propaganda than as Quentin Tarantino
revenge fantasy. Christoph Waltz's Col. Hans Landa steals the movie
from everyone and gives Tarantino an anti-hero to spin his fantasy
around. Eli Roths mini movie is interesting bit of self reflection
and makes the following scene play contextually different. I would
have been very interested (inspired by Paranormal Activity style
ads) to do night vision audience portraits during the final fire
scene in Inglorious Basterds and what ever the big moment is in New
Moon then cross cut them.
*The 10th film would have been Bruno but I didnt know how to write
about it. Asking for laughs with vignettes on gay rights,
tolerance, homophobia, ultimate fighting, terrorism, mid east
conflict resolution, classism, extreme sex acts, celebrity
vapidness, selling children, attempts to seduce a congressman, the
waste of the fashion and entertainment industries with that much
penis worship just seems strange to write about.
Words: Todd Raviotta
Todd Raviotta teaches The Film Image in the VCU Photography and
— Posted by: anthony on January 2, 2010 - 8:53pmFilm Department.
The Cove was an incredible documentary.
— Posted by: Scott Burger on January 3, 2010 - 3:49pmIf I had seen Dr. Parnassus before I made this list it would have been on it. I will write about it after I seen it a 2nd time.
— Posted by: Natural Science on January 13, 2010 - 7:06pmor rather the 9 from 2009 list in the comment section. was what that ^^ Dr parnassus comment refers too.
— Posted by: Natural Science on January 13, 2010 - 7:11pmPost new comment